Thomas langham



ept.8,1885.

atented S M m H A w m a w M n a A m F L. T M

(No Model) UNITED STATES PATENT G FTCE.

THOMAS LANeHAr oF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR or ONE-HALF TO ALFRED OLIVER, OF sAME PLAoE.

KNITTING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No.325,943, dated September 8, 1885. Application filed September 15, 1884. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS LANGHAM, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements in Knitting-Machines,

of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to make a knitting-machine of finer gage than usual that is to say, having a greater number of needles to the inch; and this object I attain by dispensing with the usual fixed partitions between the needle-jacks.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a sectional plan view of the needle-cylinder of a knitting-machine provided with needles in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2, a trans verse section showing'also the outer camcylinder; and Fig. 3 a perspective View of part of the needle-cylinder and some of the needles.

A is the needlecylinder; B, the outer camcylinder having upper cams, a, and lower cams, .72, as usual,- and D are the needles having jacks so, with bits 1, adapted to the space between the upper and lower cams, so that as the cylinder A is rotated the needles will be raised and lowered, as usual. Usually the cylinder A is out so as to present around its entire periphery alternating ribs and grooves, the needle-jacks sliding in said grooves and being separated from each other by the ribs. In order to make a machine of finer gage than usual, I dispense with these ribs and use a plain cylinder, around which the needles are placed side by side, the jacks a: sliding in contact with each other, the waste of space due to the presence of the ribsbeing thus avoided and the gage of the machine being limited only by the thickness of the needle- 40 jacks.

jecting In order to prevent the entire set of needles from slipping circumferentially on the cylinder, I form in the same, at intervals, radial slots w, the jacks of some of the needles prointo these slots, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

While the main object of my invention, as above stated, is to make a machine of finer gage than usual, there may be mentioned, as other advantages, the reduction in the expense of making the machine, due to the discarding of the ribbed and grooved cylinder, and the greater ease of working, owing to the fact that the friction is much less than in machines in which the needle-jacks bear against afixed rib during their entire movement.

The supporting-jacksthat is to say, those jacks which are guided in the slots of the cylinderneed not necessarily be provided with needles, althoughi-t is preferable to furnish these jacks with needles as well as the others.

My invention is applicable to straight machines or rib-frames, as well as to circular machines; hence, although I have shown the needles on a cylinder, I have in the claims used the term needle-carrier to indicate that part of the machine on which the needles are guided as they are moved by the cams.

I am aware that it has been proposed to dispense with the usual ribbed bars and cylinders of knitting-machines by alternating with the needles short bits controlled by the cams in the same manner as the needles; but in this case there is the same separation of the needles as in the usual machines; hence the .machine cannot be made as fine in gage as when the needles are placed side by side with their jacks in contact as in my machine. Moreover, in the machine which has been proposed, the needles were prevented from mov- 'ing" eircumferentially or longitudinally by fixed ribs on the carrier, whereas in my machine, the supporting-jacks are guided in the slots of the carrier and are under the influence of the cams which operate the needles.

I am also aware that in barbed-needle machines the needles have been placed on the carrier with their jacks or stems side by side and in contact; but such machines are essentially different from that forming the subject of my invention, in that the needles have no vertical reciprocating movement on the carrier, whereas my invention is an improvement on the ordinary latch-needle machine, in which the needles have ,such movement and must necessarily be guided.

I therefore claim as my invention- 1. The combinationof the needle-carrier of a knitting-machine, having slots 10, needle-v operating cam or cams, needles placed side by side on the carrier, and havingtheir jacks in contact and under control of said cam or cams,

and supporting-jacks guided in the slots of In testimony whereof I have signed my name the carrier and also under the control of the to this specification in the presence of two subneedle-operating cam or cams, as set forth. scribing Witnesses.

2. The combination of the needle-carrier of 5 a knitting-machine, having slots w, the needle- THOMAS LANGHAM.

operating cam or cams, and needles placed side by side on the carrier with their jacks in \Vitnesses: contact, said jacks being under 'control of the JOHN M. CLAYTON, cam or earns and some of the needle-jacks HARRY SMITH.

to entering the slots w, as specified. 

